Mac 30th Celebration: Original Mac team members share their stories

Roman Loyola |
Jan. 28, 2014

The Mac had a birthday last Friday, and what's a birthday without a celebration? Apple employees at One Infinite Loop celebrated with a private concert by OneRepublic. But what about everyday Mac users? Many of them gathered at Cupertino's Flint Center last Saturday night to attend the Mac 30th Celebration, organized by All Planet Studios, the Computer History Museum, and Macworld/iWorld. [Editor's disclaimer: Macworld/iWorld is an event run by IDG World Expo, a sister company to IDG Consumer & SMB, Macworld's parent company.]

Steve Jobs' reputation as a tough, demanding, and abrasive manager is well documented, but the members of the original Mac team found ways to handle Jobs. "Steve wasn't an engineer," said Atkinson, "but he knew how to get the best out of people."

At the end of the second panel, Mike Marukkula came out with a speech to honor the Mac team. Markkula, known as Apple employee number three, was then honored with a statue of six hands holding up a Mac and an inscription that read, "Apple and Macintosh would never have happened without you. Your participation changed the world." The members of the Mac team in attendance then took to the stage to pose for a photo.

The rest of the event featured a look at Apple's advertisments by Steve Hayden, a copywriter for the 1984 commerical and other Apple ads; and a panel of third-party software developers who shared their stories on how they started their businesses on the Mac.

The event ended with a letter to the Mac, written by Jerry Manock on behalf of the Macintosh team. It was read by Patti Kenyon, Mancock, and Caroline Rose and is available for download as a PDF:

Dear Mac:

Today you are celebrating your 30th birthday. Here are some things we wanted you to know as you enter your fourth decade:

Your early family really loved you...they had a lot of fun being pirates and worked very hard together before you were born.

You were a cute, chubby little baby but have grown up to be as slender as a #2 pencil with the power of a NFL middle linebacker.

You were writing and drawing sketches at a very early age. Who would have guessed that you would now be making movies all by yourself and sharing them with people around the world.

Your list of accomplishments is truly astounding! We are very, very proud of all the tasks you have mastered...many more than we had ever imagined.

Never forget that your parents wanted you to always be respectful of the individuality of your users...and we hope that you will continue to help them communicate their uniqueness to each other.

Do not let vanity and compliments about your beauty stop you from always remembering your core purpose of fostering innovation and creativity in others.

Finally, don't forget to keep your sense of humor! True artists not only ship... they laugh! Don't forget about that little Mac Man that used to run across the Desktop every once-in-a-while!

So have an insanely great Happy Birthday! We all wish you continued success in your next 30 years helping pilot The Mother Ship.